The CJEU balances the Moroccan diplomatic offensive regarding the future of Western Sahara
On November 6, 2025, it will be 50 years since the Green March or, as the Sahrawis know it, the Black March. Morocco thus began a long-term project to annex Western Sahara, a territory under Spanish colonial rule since the end of the 19th century. The decolonization process was interrupted after the Madrid Agreements of 1975 and, even today, it is an incomplete process according to international legislation. A couple of years ago, in these pages it was indicated that “perhaps the only aspect on which the Sahrawis as a whole agree is on the terrible performance – both in leaving the territory and in the silence and inaction – that has characterized Spanish policy regarding Western Sahara” (see MN 679, pp. 30-37). Spain continues to be one of the countries with the greatest historical responsibility in this issue. Morocco, using its different pressure tools and the most varied diplomatic techniques, first with Hassan II and then with Mohamed VI, has been gaining the support of different international actors in its attempts to annex the Sahrawi territory.
From Trump to Macron
In the last five years, the Moroccan monarchy has made important progress with respect to its permanent occupation plan. One of the main turning points took place in December 2020, when shortly before ending his first term in the White House, Donald Trump became the first Western leader to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory. On January 10, 2021, the US embassy in Rabat published a note announcing that President Trump intended to open a consulate in the city of Dakhla, a project that he could resume after his inauguration. This decision, which has not been revoked in Biden’s four years, was part of a broader agreement by which Morocco reestablished relations with Israel, in an example of the complex international implications surrounding this issue.
After Trump’s movement, it was the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, who, in a very controversial decision, brought his position closer to Morocco through a letter sent to King Mohamed VI in March 2022, in which Sánchez recognized “the importance that the question of Western Sahara has for Morocco and the serious and credible efforts of Morocco, within the framework of the United Nations, to find a mutually acceptable solution. In this sense, Spain considers the Moroccan autonomy proposal presented in 2007 as the most serious, credible and realistic basis for the resolution of this dispute. With this, a historic turn was produced in Spanish foreign policy on the Sahara. Although the letter was never disclosed by the Government, but rather made known by the Royal House of Morocco and published in its entirety by El País, the truth is that it put an end to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. A month later, Sánchez traveled to Rabat on an official visit to agree on the reopening of the borders in Ceuta and Melilla. The German Government is along the same lines, which, after the arrival of Olaf Scholz to power at the end of 2021, redirected the open diplomatic crisis with Morocco by recognizing that the autonomy plan presented by Rabat in 2007 contributed to the end of the conflict, a recognition that Berlin has reiterated on other occasions since then.
The last Western leader to position himself on the side of Morocco has been Macron. The French president, in a letter on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the enthronement of Mohamed VI last July, maintained that “the present and future of Western Sahara are part of the framework of Moroccan sovereignty. I can therefore assure you that France’s position on this issue of national security for its Kingdom is inviolable. France intends to act consistently with this position both nationally and internationally. For France, autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework in which this issue must be resolved. “Our support for the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 is clear and constant.” During his official visit to the North African country last October, Macron spoke before the Moroccan Parliament with a speech of almost 45 minutes in which he reiterated that “for France, the present and future of this territory (Western Sahara) is part of within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.
And from the UN to the EU
Both France and the United States are permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council and both countries have recognized, in the last five years, Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahrawi territory. While it is true that the UN has recently renewed the mandate of MINURSO for another year, the upcoming resignation of Staffan de Mistura as UN special envoy for Western Sahara jeopardizes the continuation of the United Nations special mission if The Security Council cannot agree on appointing a new special envoy. Within the framework of the renewal of the mandate, the Italian-Swedish diplomat proposed for the first time the solution of the partition of the territory between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a measure that does not please either party.
Meanwhile, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled at the beginning of October that the fishing and agricultural agreements that the European Union maintains with Morocco must be annulled, agreeing with the Sahrawi people when considering that they violate their rights by not take into account their right to self-determination. For Manuel Devers, lawyer of the Polisario Front, the ruling of the European court implies a recognition of the right of self-determination over the territory and sovereignty over its natural resources, as he expressed on November 18 in a conference at the Congress of Deputies. . At the same conference, Oubi Bouchraya Bachir, representative of the Polisario Front, celebrated that these sentences shield the political aspirations of Western Sahara while weakening Morocco’s positions. In short, “a glimmer of hope,” as expressed by deputy Tesh Sidi.
